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Looking for easy baked chicken recipes? Well, go no further than this Bacon, Cream Cheese, Cheddar Chicken! What's great about this recipe? It uses basic ingredients that just about everybody loves! Everything is baked together in one casserole dish. Chicken and 2 kinds of cheese. Try it and see for yourself! This chicken bake is low carb, high fat, KETO friendly, gluten free recipe.
Perfect recipe for those nights when you don't have much time on your hands to fiddle with too many complicated ingredients. This recipe is very similar to my popular broccoli bacon cheddar chicken. Baked chicken recipes these days often include some sophisticated ingredients and complicated cooking techniques, but not here. It's a KETO friendly, low-carb, and gluten free recipe.
This Bacon, Creamy Cheese, Cheddar Chicken is simple and delicious, with the minimum prep, and everything is baked in 30 minutes, just like in this ranch chicken bake! And, if you want to make your chicken bake with ham instead, you can make ham and cheese chicken.
And, in all of these recipes you use good old casserole dish.
Substitutions
- The recipe uses chicken breasts. You can also use skinless boneless chicken thighs and follow the recipe as is.
- The recipe uses shredded Cheddar cheese. You can use also use Colby Jack cheese (combination of Colby cheese and Monterey Jack cheese).
Cooking tips
- Use small chicken breasts. If you purchased large chicken breasts, slice each one in half horizontally, to make it thinner. Or, purchase thinly sliced chicken breasts.
- The cooking time depends on the thickness of your chicken breasts. The thinner the chicken breasts are, the quicker the dish will cook. On average, the chicken should be done in 20-30 minutes.
- Bake the chicken uncovered, so that the cheese on top gets crispy.
What makes this chicken KETO friendly recipe
- This recipe contains cream cheese, Cheddar cheese, and bacon. All these ingredients have high fat, low sugar content.
- This recipe contains foods that are high in protein but low in carb, such as chicken breasts.
- There is no flour, no grains, nothing with gluten in this recipe.
Steps to make this easy baked cream cheese cheddar chicken recipe:
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Grease the bottom of the casserole dish with olive oil. Then, add chicken breasts.
Next, sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Top with cream cheese.
Next, top with chopped cooked bacon.
Finally, top with shredded Cheddar cheese.
Bake, uncovered, for about 20-30 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. The cooking time will depend on the thickness of your chicken breasts.
Oozing with cream cheese, this bacon cheddar chicken is so good! I hope you enjoy it and leave your review!
Related KETO Friendly Chicken Recipes
- Chicken breasts are smothered with creamed spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, and bacon, and then baked in the oven: Chicken Smothered with Bacon and Creamed Spinach
- Here is another low-carb, keto-friendly, gluten free chicken breast recipe with Mozzarella cheese: Basil Pesto Tomato Mozzarella Chicken Bake
Side dishes to serve with chicken
- Cooked greens will always go great with this chicken dish. Cooked spinach, roasted asparagus, green beans, or cooked broccoli. Also, mashed potatoes or scalloped potatoes are great.
- You can also use flavored rice. Or, try this cilantro-lime rice (with or without black beans).
- Here is an excellent recipe for roasted asparagus with bacon and cheese.
- I also love these Asiago cheese roasted broccoli, they are so crunchy I usually have a hard time not eating them all by myself.
Bacon, Cream Cheese, Cheddar Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 chicken breasts (use 4 thin chicken breasts, or use 2 large chicken breasts, sliced in half, horizontally)
- salt and pepper
- 6 oz cream cheese , cold, refrigerated, and sliced into 8 slices
- 8 strips bacon , cooked, chopped
- 1 cup Cheddar cheese , shredded
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 F.
- Grease the bottom of the casserole dish with olive oil. I used the the oval casserole dish measured 13 inches x 9 inches x 4 inches deep.
- Add chicken breasts to the casserole dish. Note about chicken: use 4 thin chicken breasts, or use 2 large thick chicken breasts, sliced in half horizontally each to make 4 thin chicken breasts.
- Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper.
- Top with cream cheese. Cream cheese should be cold, right out of the fridge, sliced into 8 thin slices.
- Top with chopped cooked bacon (drained from fat).
- Top with shredded Cheddar cheese.
- Bake, uncovered, for about 20-30 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. The cooking time will depend on the thickness of your chicken breasts.
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Oh! My! GAWSH!! This was absolutely fantastic!! It is a new favorite in my home - for everyone!! I prepared it EXACTLY as the recipe called for (filleted the chicken breasts and baked for the full 30 minutes; my guess is if you don’t fillet the chicken it would take closer to 40 min depending on oven heat) and I have zero complaints! BEST cheesy bacon chicken EVER!!
... oh! I suppose I didn’t do it EXACTLY as the recipe called for. I actually used room temperature cream cheese then spread it all over the chicken. Mouth is watering again
Loved this and am telling others about it!!
So we are told to stay home due to the covid virus
Still, I had to meal prep for the week since I work in medical and my hubby is in the Army. I started googling easy recipes, I saw this had a 5 star review. I figured why not try it. I am overwhelmed by how fantastic it is!!! I shared with a friend and she loved it as well!!! Thank you, Seriously thank you!!! I want to make more of your recipes now!! PS: I added garlic to mine as well 😉
This was amazing!! Only thing I added (and merely because I have found many online recipes to be more bland for my taste) was a little garlic powder with that salt and pepper! I absolutely will make this again (may not add the garlic powder as it was full of flavor! ). The best chicken recipe I’ve had a min a long time!
Laura, your comment made my day! So happy you enjoyed this recipe! 🙂
I give this a 10 and it is a keeper for sure
YUM!!! Both a friend and family new favorite. The kids asked if I can make it all the time, and it’s keto friendly. I made ours with veggie noodles in alfredo sauce on the side. So quick and easy too! Love it! Thank you for the recipe!
You are very welcome! So glad you enjoyed the recipe! Veggie noodles in alfredo sauce as a side dish sound delicious!
Family favorite!! 20 min on 400 is perfect. This recipe can be played with quite a bit - use this as a base, and add things to your liking!
Thank you, Nancy! So glad you enjoyed this recipe. You are so right - this is a great base recipe, you can add lots of other ingredients.
20-30 minutes on 400 f ain't even close. Bake the chicken first and add the cheddar, cream cheese and cooked bacon around 15 min before it's ready.
Maybe you didn't read the part that says to cut your chicken breasts in small slices I guess. 20-25 minutes is more than enough. And if your slices are on the larger size, just increase your cooking time, problem solved.
I love this recipe. I added diced Pickled jalapeños, a tablespoon of sugar, extra cheddar cheese, bacon bits and garlic, to the cream cheese.. then I stirred it all together, and put it on top Of the chicken, then topped the chicken with the bacon and shredded cheddar cheese. I also browned my chicken in the bacon grease before baking. Delicious.
Did not taste good! Ingredients looked good but not taste. Cooked 20 min. Chicken had a slight chewyness. Nothing about this recipe was crunchy. Was disappointed! None of us went for seconds and I was still hungry. Deleting recipe. Disappointed. This is the first recipe ever that didn’t come out well!
I think if you cook the bacom seperate that's better. I didn't put cream cheese on mine and it was delish. Cream cheese seems to be the thing that would make it soggy
Yes, definitely use pre-cooked bacon in this recipe.
It’s delicious you must of did something wrong
Can i use a cast iron skillett?
Yes, you can use cast iron skillet
i was wondering if you cook make them a little more diabetic friendly
Love! I added some garlic cloves and diced onion to add some flavor. Super good keto meal!
I am very happy to hear that! Love the addition of garlic and diced onion!
The best chicken recipe ever!!! My family loves it!!! Thank you so much!!!
You are very welcome! So glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Good recipe, the only thing at least in my oven is that I had to cover it about 3/4 of the way through cooking because the cheese was getting too dark. Will definitely keep this one in my KETO arsenal!
So glad you tried this recipe and enjoyed it! Thank you for the comment!
I made this the other night and my husband loved it as much as I did. Thank you so much for posting this and I will definitely be making this again.
Kathy, you are very welcome! I am glad you and your husband enjoyed this dish! 🙂